The Running Toilet Book: Chapter 3 — Berkeley’s Question (LeakBird)

Apr.19, 2009 in Prop Management, Running Toilets, Water Bills

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
George Berkeley

Before we move on, let’s rephrase Berkeley’s famous question:

If a toilet runs in the bathroom and no is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

The latter part of this chapter will address this question.

But first, now that we’ve debunked the Water Myth and the Super Toilet Myth, it’s time to address a little known fact mentioned earlier: 10 percent of all residential, in-building water consumption is due to running or leaking toilets.

This means that, as a property manager, approximately 10 percent of your water bill (give or take a percentage point or two when factoring in sewage fees as well as the complexity of tiered water rates) can be attributed to a leaking or running toilet!

As a water manager, likewise, approximately 10 percent of the water you source, treat and distribute through your water systems, in other words, convert to potable, drinking water, which makes it all the way to residential fixtures (that is, we’re not factoring in leaking pipes) is lost due to running or leaking toilets!

Let me tell you how I extrapolated this little known fact:

According to many well-known studies, 12 percent to 15 percent of all residential, in-building water usage is wasted due to leaks
According to experts, 90 percent of all in residential, in-building water waste or leakage can be attributed to running or leaking toilets.
Hence, we can say that 90 percent of 12 percent to 15 percent of all residential, in-building water usage is due to running toilet or leaking toilets. .90 x .12 = .108 and .90 x .15 = .135. That’s 10.8 percent to 13.5 percent!!! But to low-ball it perhaps a little, so as not to make it as big a problem as it actually is, we’ll say it’s 10 percent!

The reason that it’s such a problem is that no one is around to measure it. And we know that if no one measures it, then it goes unnoticed, at least until you receive an exorbitant water bill, after which you try to address the issue in the manner described in the preceding chapter.

We can hearken back to our high school philosophy or English class, where we pondered whether or not a tree falling in the forest actually made a sound if no one was around to hear it. George Berkeley defined a philosophy of immaterialism, which simply argued that if something wasn’t perceived, then it didn’t exist.

Well, we can say that it’s true for running toilets. They don’t really exist unless you’re footing the bill and you notice a particularly high water bill. Even tenants who hear their toilets running for the most part aren’t aware of the cost nor does it really bother them, because they’re not paying for it anyway and the toilet continues to function unabatedly.

In other words, a running toilet is immaterial to those who don’t pay for it!

So I’ve got a story.

My business partner Jordan Sudy manages residential apartments in San Francisco. One day recently he was at a local café, when one of his tenants – we’ll call him Ron for now – sat down beside him with cup of coffee. Because they’re on particularly good terms, even friends to some degree, they exchanged niceties. Now Ron had already given his notice of departure to Jordan in advance, as he was leaving for school the following month.

“Hey Jordan, there’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you,” he said. “It’s been happening a lot over the last month or so. My toilet’s been running constantly.”

“Oh yeah?” asked Jordan.

“Yeah, and since I’m leaving soon, I thought it important that I tell you.”

“Do you know how much that costs?” asked Jordan.

“No, but I didn’t think it was that big a deal,” he said. “The toilet still continues to function properly.”

“A running toilet can easily add $500.00 to our water bill,” said Jordan a little abruptly. “When I see the water bill and if it’s abnormally high, I’m going to know for exactly what reason.”

“Sorry, man, I didn’t know,” said Ron.

“Ron, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” said Jordan.

The reason I tell this story is it’s perfectly illustrative of Berkeley’s philosophy. For Ron, the running toilet didn’t exist. For Jordan, it was a stark reality and enemy to be avoided at all costs, particularly because he has to foot the bill at the building owner’s cost, which eats directly into profits. However, as he’s learned, to quote Dana Haasz again, toilet run.

Jordan did receive the bi-monthly water bill and it was several hundred dollars higher than average. But Ron, who wasn’t liable for the water bill anyway, had already moved out.

Since then we’ve talked with dozens of property managers and many of them have the same story to tell.

If you don’t measure something, it simply doesn’t exist. And when you do measure something, you immediately begin to see results.

Let’s take the example of setting a budget for yourself. The moment you begin measuring your expenses against the goals of your budget, you see an improvement in results. It’s that simple.

So how to measure or meter or audit a toilet when it runs, if you can’t rely on a tenant to do so?

That’s the question we’ll be addressing in chapters 4 and 5.

If you are interested in How You Can Increase Your Cash Flows by $2,500.00 Every Year and Never Pay for High Water Bills Due to Your Tenants’ Running Toilets, sign up for our Free Report here.

Abendigo Reebs is the VP of Business Development for LeakBird Industries LLC in San Francisco, CA. He may be reached at by email at jordan@leakbird.com

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